Yehezkiel 5:10

5:10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ¹  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ²  to the winds. ³ 

Yehezkiel 5:16

5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, ⁴  destructive ⁵  arrows of famine, ⁶  which I will shoot to destroy you. ⁷  I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. ⁸ 

[5:10]  ¹ tn In context “you” refers to the city of Jerusalem. To make this clear for the modern reader, “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation in apposition to “you.”

[5:10]  sn This cannibalism would occur as a result of starvation due to the city being besieged. It is one of the judgments threatened for a covenant law violation (Lev 26:29; see also Deut 28:53; Jer 19:9; Lam 2:20; Zech 11:9).

[5:10]  ² tn Heb “all of your survivors.”

[5:10]  ³ tn Heb “to every wind.”

[5:16]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”

[5:16]  ⁶ tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.

[5:16]  ⁷ tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).

[5:16]  ⁸ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.